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My Obsession with Gwen Stefani’s Heartbreak

Please allow me this little indulgence. I am a huge Gwen Stefani fan. Back in the ’90s Ms. Stefani was the lead singer of the ska punk/rock band No Doubt.

Hollaback if you remember this band and this album.

In 2004 Gwen decided to fly solo with her own music and has created quite a few hits since then. I only just started listening to Gwen’s music the last year or two because my primary music selection for over a decade had been Contemporary Christian Music. Now that I’m no longer a Christian I am catching up for a decade’s worth of pop music.

Gwen has been in the news lately for joining The Voice as a coach. If you aren’t familiar with this show it’s an NBC reality show that has been running for 9 seasons and involves contestants singing for four judges whose chairs are turned away from the stage so they contestants are chosen purely off their singing ability.

But the news (er, gossip) these days is that in August Gwen divorced her husband, Gavin Rossdale of the rock band Bush, and is now dating The Voice coach Blake Shelton, who has also recently divorced his wife.

Gavin might have been a talented musician but according to what I’ve been hearing in Gwen’s music over the past decade he sounds like a real douchebag who emotionally abused her and cheated on her. It seems as if Gwen has been telling the story of her failing marriage though her music since 2004. I find it interesting that she and her husband started having children in 2005 just after she began releasing these songs of heartache. Maybe in an effort to save their marriage? I know, that’s just speculation ie. gossip.

I noticed a trend of Gwen expressing through her music that she was having relationship problems and was trying to make it work. If you are not a Gwen Stefani fan this may bore you, but if you interested in breakup/heartache songs listen to these lyrics/songs:

2005 Danger Zone

I can’t imagine how hard it must be to be you
Adopting all your history, it’s hard being me too…

And you should have told me when you met me
All these things I should know
I should have asked, we should have talked
About this so long ago…

Now we share the closet, now you’ve let me come inside
And now you’re finally undressing, and I feel like I might die
The damage is infectious, the confession is too late
And how can I accept this, how is this happening to me

All of your secrets
All your lies
All of it

2006 Early Winter

You, you know how to get me so low
My heart had a crash when we spoke
I cant fix what you broke

And you, you always have a reason
Again and again this feelin’
Oh why do I give in?…

It’s sad the map of the world is on you
The moon gravitates around you
The seasons escape you…

No, I never was, I never was one for lyin’
You lied to me all these years…

It looks like an early winter for us
It hurts and I cant remember sunlight
An early winter for us
The leaves are changing color for us

2007 The Sweet Escape

If I could escape
And recreate a place as my own world
And I could be your favorite girl
Forever, perfectly together
Tell me, boy, now wouldn’t that be sweet?

You let me down
I’m at my lowest boiling point
Come help me out
I need to get me out of this joint
Come on, let’s bounce
Counting on you to turn me around
Instead of clowning around, let’s look for some common ground

So, baby, times getting a little crazy
I’ve been getting a little lazy
Waiting for you to come save me
I can see that you’re angry
By the way the you treat me
Hopefully you don’t leave me
Want to take you with me

2007 4 In the Morning

…But it hurts when I think
When I let it sink in, its all over me
Im lyin’ here in the dark
I’m watchin’ you sleep, it hurts a lot…

All I wanted was to know Im safe
Dont want to lose the love Ive found
Remember when you said that you would change?
Dont let me down

Its not fair how you are
I cant be complete, can you give me more?…

I give you everything that I am
Im handin’ over everything that Ive got
‘Cause I wanna have a really true love
Dont ever wanna have to go and give you up

Stay up till four in the mornin’ and the tears are pourin’
And I want to make it worth the fight
What have we been doin’ for all this time?
Baby if were gonna do it, come on do it right

Oh please, you know what I need
Save all your love up for me
We cant escape the love
Give me everything that you have

2014 Baby Don’t Lie

We’ve been walking down this road some time
And you love, and you love me good, no lie
But there’s something behind those eyes, those eyes
That you can’t, that you can’t disguise, disguise

The first song we learned on the bass guitar in music class at school was Don’t Speak. I’ve been a very-lazy-not-keeping-up-with-the-gossip Gwen Stefani fan ever since. I don’t recognise those song titles except Danger Zone though so I will need to see what albums I’ve missed.